Beta Cygni 17 Nov 2012

After struggling with 33 Orionis for going on two weeks, I decided to settle on an easier binary this evening. Since Albireo was in a position that I did not have to slew my rig to some crazy angle to get a decent (and comfortable) view, it was the obvious target.

Easy split, even at low Mag.

At first glance, the primary appears as a blazing daffodil; a yellow orb encompassed by a diffracted corona of similar, saturated hue. It burns in charcoal ether like a freshly plucked dandelion up there in the sky. Located a solid split away, its smaller companion glows pale diamond blue; a cool and pleasing complement to the warmer primary.

Sketch notes: After viewing Chopin’s (Jason’s) raw sketch of Almaak, I figured it is time for me to stop playing around and utilize my recently purchased Astroview (90mm) for what I intended (i.e., splitting doubles and making sketches). For the work that is posted below I choose a wider field of view to allow for the inclusion of background stars. Additionally, I paid more attention to not only star placement, but also magnitude of these stars. For the sake of clarity, I have represented Albireo and companion as slightly larger than they actually appeared in my EP; both to capture their unique beauty and to allow for them to “jump out” at the viewer. For the overall composition I used a 25mm EP; to capture color, 17mm.

If I have succeeded at this venture…great! If not, please offer criticism as to how I might advance better representation(s) in future works.